ScienceDaily (May 29, 2012) — A chance discovery of 80-year-old photo plates in a Danish basement is providing new insight into how Greenland glaciers are melting today.

Researchers at the National Survey and Cadastre of Denmark -- that country's federal agency responsible for surveys and mapping -- had been storing the glass plates since explorer Knud Rasmussen's expedition to the southeast coast of Greenland in the early 1930s.
In this week's online edition of Nature Geoscience, Ohio State University researchers and colleagues in Denmark describe how they analyzed ice loss in the region by comparing the images on the plates to aerial photographs and satellite images taken from World War II to today.
Taken together, the imagery shows that glaciers in the region were melting even faster in the 1930s than they are today, said Jason Box, associate professor of geography and researcher at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State. A brief cooling period starting in the mid-20th century allowed new ice to form, and then the melting began to accelerate again in the 2000s.
"Because of this study, we now have a detailed historical analogue for more recent glacier loss," Box said. "And we've confirmed that glaciers are very sensitive indicators of climate."
Pre-satellite observations of Greenland glaciers are rare. Anders Anker Bjørk, doctoral fellow at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and lead author of the study, is trying to compile all such imagery. He found a clue in the archives of The Arctic Institute in Copenhagen in 2011.
"We found flight journals for some old planes, and in them was a reference to National Survey and Cadastre of Denmark," Bjørk said.
As it happens, researchers at the National Survey had already contacted Bjørk about a find of their own.
"They were cleaning up in the basement and had found some old glass plates with glaciers on them. The reason the plates were forgotten was that they were recorded for mapping, and once the map was produced they didn't have much value."
Those plates turned out to be documentation of Rasmussen's 7th Thule Expedition to Greenland. They contained aerial photographs of land, sea and glaciers in the southeast region of the country, along with travel photos of Rasmussen's team.
The researchers digitized all the old images and used software to look for differences in the shape of the southeast Greenland coastline where the ice meets the Atlantic Ocean. Then they calculated the distance the ice front moved in each time period.
Over the 80 years, two events stand out: glacial retreats from 1933-1934 and 2000-2010. In the 1930s, fewer glaciers were melting than are today, and most of those that were melting were land-terminating glaciers, meaning that they did not contact the sea.
Those that were melting retreated an average of 20 meters per year -- the fastest retreating at 374 meters per year. Fifty-five percent of the glaciers in the study had similar or higher retreat rates during the 1930s than they do today.
Still, more glaciers in southeast Greenland are retreating today, and the average ice loss is 50 meters per year. That's because a few glaciers with very fast melting rates -- including one retreating at 887 meters per year -- boost the overall average.
But to Box, the most interesting part of the study is what happened between the two melting events.
From 1943-1972, southeast Greenland cooled -- probably due to sulfur pollution, which reflects sunlight away from Earth.
Sulfur dioxide is a poisonous gas produced by volcanoes and industrial processes. It has been tied to serious health problems and death, and is also the main ingredient in acid rain. Its presence in the atmosphere peaked just after the Clean Air Act was established in 1963. As it was removed from the atmosphere, the earlier warming resumed.
The important point is not that deadly pollution caused the climate to cool, but rather that the brief cooling allowed researchers to see how Greenland ice responded to the changing climate.
The glaciers responded to the cooling more rapidly than researchers had seen in earlier studies. Sixty percent of the glaciers advanced during that time, while 12 percent were stationary. And now that the warming has resumed, the glacial retreat is dominated by marine-terminating outlet glaciers, the melting of which contributes to sea level rise.
"From these images, we see that the mid-century cooling stabilized the glaciers," Box said. "That suggests that if we want to stabilize today's accelerating ice loss, we need to see a little cooling of our own."
Southeast Greenland is a good place to study the effects of climate change, he explained, because the region is closely tied to air and water circulation patterns in the North Atlantic.
"By far, more storms pass through this region -- transporting heat into the Arctic -- than anywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere. Climate change brings changes in snowfall and air temperature that compete for influence on a glacier's net behavior," he said.
Co-authors on the study include Kurt H. Kjær, Niels J. Korsgaard, Kristian K. Kjeldsen, and Svend Funder at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen; Shfaqat A. Khan of the National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark; Camilla S. Andresen of the Department of Marine Geology and Glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland; and Nicolaj K. Larsen of the Department of Geoscience at Aarhus University.
Photos, satellite images and other data for the study were provided by the National Survey and Cadastre; The Scott Polar Research Institute in the United Kingdom; the Arctic Institute in Denmark; researchers Bea Csatho and Sudhagar Nagarajan of the Geology Department at the University at Buffalo; and the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center at the USGS/Earth Resources Observation and Science Center of Sioux Falls, S.D. Andreas Pedersen of the Danish company MapWork wrote the script for the software used in the study.
This work is a part of the RinkProject funded by the Danish Research Council and the Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland.

ScienceDaily (May 30, 2012) — Researchers
at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) have discovered the
remains of newborn twin girls in the archaeological site of Olèrdola in
Barcelona. They date back to between the middle of the 4th century B.C.
to the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. The findings are the first bone
remains of twins to be recorded in the Iberian Peninsula

"This
is the first documented case in the Iberian Peninsula. There has been
much talk of possible twins but never has sufficient data been gathered
in the field to determine whether findings belong to the same
chronological moment in time, nor has data ever been found on the same
stratigraphic level to guarantee with such certainty like in this
instance," as explained by Eulalia Subira, researcher at the UAB and
coauthor of the study published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
The
remains were found in the archaeological site of Sant Miquel d'Olèrdola
in Catalonia and it is expected that they belong to two girls between
38 and 40 weeks of gestation who were buried at the same time in the
same grave with their legs entwined.
According to the study, "none
of the bone remains show pathological evidence of the cause of death
but it could have been a consequence of difficult pregnancy or
childbirth. Lack of sufficient hygiene could have lead to infant and
maternal mortality in Prehistoric times."
In order to test this
finding, scientists used forensic anthropology methods, first
determining the age and sex. "The specialist carrying out such
assessment was 'blind'. In other words, she was not told at any time
that both individuals were found next to each other or that they could
be twins."
The age of the twins was estimated by taking the tooth
germs, the length of the bones and the state of ossification. In
addition, experts used photographs of the site to see whether they had
been buried at the same time or not, they spoke with archaeologists, who
indicated that the two remains had been found in the same grave, and
they studied the planimetries.
Subirà points out that "they also
carried out DNA analysis but it was not possible to obtain DNA data on
one of the individuals despite repeating sampling taking and analysis."Children buried near to their mothers
This
discovery offers new information to the numerous documented cases of
child burials during the Iberian Age, when perinatal children were not
buried in cemeteries.
"The Olèrdola archaeological site is itself
very interesting. It has always been said that throughout the Iberian
Age newly born children were not buried in cemeteries. In this case,
they were found in a skin tanning and dying area: in other words, a
space dedicated to work," points out Subirà.
For the researcher,
finding newly born children buried in a work area could indicate that it
was where the mothers used to work. This provides information on
society and the attachment relationship that parents had with deceased
newly born children.
"Recognition of this type of burial will be
of great assistance in the future when it comes to interpreting the
socio-cultural impact of the arrival of twins in a pre or proto-historic
population, their treatment and their life expectancy. We are currently
working in the same archaeological site but on more recent remains," as
the researcher concludes

An ancient cave which proves the existence of human life in Wales more than
12,000 years ago is set to receive greater protection from heritage body Cadw
after vandals destroyed 70% of its archeological secrets. The Gower site is home
to Britain's oldest recorded Palaeolithic cave art - but much of it has been
destroyed in what has been described as a 'mindless attack'. The site's
importance means its exact location is a closely guarded secret, but protection
work is set to commence to preserve what is left. A Welsh Government
spokesman said: "Since the discovery of the rock art in 2010 and the distressing
deliberate damage to it, Cadw has been in discussion with the Forestry
Commission, National Museum Wales, the Countryside Council for Wales and the
finder of the art to agree how best to protect the site. The site has been
scheduled and works to safeguard it are due to commence shortly." Dr
George Nash, an archaeology lecturer at Bristol University and consultant
employed at SLR Consulting in Shrewsbury, discovered the engraving while
undertaking field work in 2010. "This is a site of huge international
importance, and research by a team of specialists has dated the paintings as
being 12,572 years old, plus or minus 600 years. At that time this area of Wales
experienced summers of -10Â°C and we know there was a huge ice sheet just four
or five kilometres north of the cave," said Dr Nash. "It's not only the oldest
rock art ever found in the UK but, until a few years ago, history books would
have told you that human beings could not have survived here in such severe
conditions, clearly now this is not the case. This evidence proves that they
could, and did," he added. Dr Nash also said: "We've also been
incredibly lucky at this site because you can only date engravings like this if
something overlies them such as flowstone (stalagmite). For some reason, and by
complete coincidence, the person who engraved this art over 12,000 years ago did
so on a piece of rock where a flowstone later grew over it, which is the only
reason we could work out its history." Archeologist Karl-James Langford
called for better protection of such sites. He said: "No effort has been made to
present the work to the public, or even to protect it. Here in Wales, we make
very little effort to protect much of our past, when there is a large amount of
money available to protect it elsewhere in Great Britain. On a visit only last
week with one of my students, we examined the cave, and found various amounts of
rubbish in it, and the Palaeolithic cave art discovered two-and-a-half years ago
of a reindeer has been smeared over with mud." Dr Nash said: "From a
scientific point of view we can treat these vandals with utter contempt because
we managed to get all the recorded data that we needed before the site was
damaged. But from a historic point of view it really is a tragedy for the people
of Wales because this was a significant part of our past, and an amazing site."
He added: "The good news is that steps are being carried out to stop vandals
getting back in there and what remains will be protected for many, many more
years."

THE idea of the “haves” and the “have-nots” may seem like a largely modern concept – but in reality social inequality dates back to the Stone Age, archaeologists have discovered.
By analysing 300 human skeletons from the early Neolithic era, scientists from three British universities have discovered that social inequality began more than 7,000 years ago.
It is the earliest evidence yet found of members of society having unequal access to land and possessions, and suggests that the concept of inherited wealth started with Neolithic man.
And they also found that, for Stone Age women, it was the norm to leave their families and move in with the families of their new husbands – a social structure known as patrilocality.
The archaeologists, from the universities of Bristol, Cardiff and Oxford, discovered that farmers buried with tools had access to better land than those buried without.
Isotope analysis was carried out on the skeletons to work out their place of origin. Those men buried with stone tools for smoothing or carving wood, known as adzes, had access to close, and probably better, land than those buried without.
Professor Alex Bentley, professor of archaeology and anthropology at the University of Bristol, said: “The men buried with adzes appear to have lived on food grown in areas of loess, the fertile and productive soil favoured by early farmers. This indicates they had consistent access to preferred farming areas.”
The strontium isotope analysis also revealed that early Neolithic women were more likely than men to have originated from areas outside those where their bodies were found. The scientists say this is a strong indication of “patrilocality” – a social system where women move to live in the location of their husband when they marry.
The strontium isotope ratios in teeth stay constant from childhood, and can be matched to the geology where they grew up, giving an insight into the location of their birth.
The evidence is backed up by other archaeological, genetic, anthropological and linguistic evidence for patrilocality in Neolithic Europe. The study authors believe the new research has implications for genetic modelling of how human populations expanded – and they believe status differences are crucial for this modelling.
Prof Bentley said: “Our results, along with archaeobotanical studies that indicate the earliest farmers of Neolithic Germany had a system of land tenure, suggest the origins of differential access to land can be traced back to an early part of the Neolithic era, rather than only to later prehistory when inequality and intergenerational wealth transfers are more clearly evidenced in burials and material culture.
“It seems the Neolithic era introduced heritable property – land and livestock – into Europe, and that wealth inequality got underway when this happened. After that there was no looking back: through the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Industrial era, wealth inequality increased but the ‘seeds’ of inequality were sown way back in the Neolithic.”
The research is published in the journal PNAS.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/class-system-began-7-000-years-ago-archaeologists-find-1-2324082

Two Roman-era shipwrecks have been found in deep waters off Greece's western coast, challenging the theory that ancient mariners stuck close to coastal routes for safety.
Greece's culture ministry says two second-century wrecks were found earlier this month in waters over a half-mile deep off the islands of Corfu and Paxoi.
A ministry statement says the wreckage was found in an area where a Greek-Italian gas pipeline is to be located, the Associated Press reports.
A Greek oceanographic vessel using side-scan radar and robot submarines took footage of scattered pottery, ballast stones and what could be remains of the wooden ships, the AP reports.
The team also raised samples of pottery and marble artifacts

A team of archaeologists from a Texas theological seminary and the University of Cyprus is hoping to reveal the ordinary domestic lives of Cyprus’ early Christians in a new dig at Kourion (Curium) which was destroyed by a series of earthquakes around 365 AD.
A long-cherished hope of team leader Professor Thomas Davis is that excavations will also uncover the island’s first ever “house-church”, a private home where early believers met to worship at a time when fear of persecution prevented the erection of churches.
“We are trying to explore something which doesn’t really get looked at in Cypriot archaeology, and that’s the common people,” said Davis, a professor of Archaeology and Biblical Backgrounds at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort Worth Texas and previously a director of CAARI (Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute).
“Secretly, I would love to find the first house church found on Cyprus. There was a large community here and we know there were Christian believers before the quakes.”
Kourion, which archaeologists believe numbered up to 10,000 people, is situated in an area steeped in mostly Roman history whose famous remains include a large theatre, a market place, public baths and mosaics. Close by is the Sanctuary of Apollon Ylatis.
“We are catching the window of transition, when Cyprus is becoming Christian, the earthquakes mark the major division,” said Davis, who has spent many years excavating in Cyprus and throughout the Middle East.
His last dig at Kourion was 28 years ago as a graduate student and he said it was “wonderful to be back” for the dig which is called the Curium Urban Space Project (CUSP).
Just three days into the dig this week, and after digging only 20 cms down, the team had already uncovered what could be the wall of a previously uncovered house. They intend to dig down for up to a further two metres.
“Currently, we’ve opened up an area of 27 m2 and we will expand it to about 70m2. We have found what I think it could be the wall of a house. It’s plastered, which means it’s not something solely utilitarian. The wall has been smoothed nicely; we will see with further investigations,” Davis said.
He explained that prior to the quakes from 365 to 370 AD, pagan temples in Kourion were still active, and there were no churches. Although the history of Christianity in Cyprus dates back to the historic visit of Saint Paul and Barnabas in around 45 AD, and although a Paphos proconsul was to become the first official Roman governor to embrace the religion, the spread of Christianity in Cyprus was patchy at first.
In Kourion this meant Christian worship remained secretive - hence the significance of the house-church - and it was not until after the earthquakes that churches replaced temples as places of worship.
“This change is obvious in the lives of the common people. In the earthquake debris from 25 years ago, we found a Christian ring with a Chi-Rho symbol, [the Monogram of Christ].
We also found Christian lamps. These people were partially pagan and some were Christian. This is the same type of evidence that the late Danielle Parks found in her Amathus gate cemetery excavation,” he said.
The professor noted that the mosaics in Kato Paphos are beautiful and well known, but added that his team is looking for the remains of people who were living normal lives.
“We are not looking for evidence of the elite but people like us. The people who were just trying to get by and were hit by the earthquake in 365; we’re trying to capture that moment and see what that looks like. It’s an important moment in time.”
The team has already found tessera fragments - pieces of mosaics - a considerable amount of pottery, some glass, and groundstone. No metal items have been found yet, but the team expects to uncover some.
“The pottery all fits the sort of window of the earthquakes, so it may be third century to fifth century. What really gives us the tight dates though are the coins and we haven’t found any yet, but we will.”
Davis also expects to find artefacts consisting of glass and metal, lamps and lamp stands, pictures, pottery platters, large storage jars and other storage items as well as cooking items used in daily life.
“I’m sure we will also find the high end stuff you bring out when your mother in law comes to visit, as well as the normal things you use every day,” he said.
“We want to find more of these types of things, to see the change, to discover these families, who are they, how they express their new faith, or if they hang onto their old faith. We want to see how Christianity is beginning to grow and expand.
“Of course by the fifth century - Christianity becomes what a Cypriot is, it’s part of the Cypriot identity.”

The professor was approached by the Department of Antiquities last year to undertake the current excavation and was granted a permit by the government allocating the specific area of the dig.
He explained that before deciding on a likely area there are certain questions to answer. For instance, why are certain areas flat? Normally, this means that there has been an intervention by people to flatten it, so as to build there. In the area the team has chosen it is quite breezy, so this may be somewhere where housing is. There is also a well. “You primarily look for surface indications then mull over the evidence and with 30 years of experience you decide which spot to start digging in,” he said.
Trey Thames, a member of the archaeology team is a PhD student of Davis, explained what moves are taken to prepare a site.
“First we must clear the site of all the shrubs and weeds so that the surface is clearly visible. This helps us to do a visual survey - to look at the area you’ve chosen and identify any specific visual IDs. After that we mark out our grid area and we start digging about 10 cm or so down,” he said.
“You start digging and pulling back the soil a little at the time .Once we get to an area where we think we’re going to find something, we stop using the big picks and switch to hand picks. You have to be very slow about it, and start sifting, looking for small finds that might be missed when you’re pulling the dirt out. It’s exciting. “
A mason’s trowel with a flat sharp edge is also used which allows the archaeologists to follow a surface by feeling it. This is especially useful in bright sunlight, such as the team is experiencing in Cyprus, when the light
at times is blinding.
“When you have enough experience you can ‘ride the surface’ with a trowel. That was how we picked up the wall; initially we didn’t see it, we felt it,” said Davis.
“Archaeologists like to study transition and change because it tells us so much about ourselves as we all go through change. When you understand the past you understand yourself much better.”
The team will be digging at the site in Kourion until June 22.

More than ten thousands of bone fragments were recovered from the Lingjing site, Henan Province during 2005 and 2006. By taking statistical analyses of the skeletal elements of the two predominant species in this assemblage, aurochs (Bos primigenius) and horse (Equus caballus), scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, found that hominids at this site have already practiced sophisticated hunting techniques and subsistence strategies and may be quite familiar with the ecological and anatomical characteristics and nutritional values of the large-sized prey animals and can accordingly take different processing and handling strategies at the hunting site, as reported in the journal of Science China Earth Sciences, 2012, 55 (2).

The Lingjing site is located in the west part of Lingjing town, about 15 km to the northwest of the Xuchang City, Henan Province and stands at an elevation point of 117 m. Initially discovered in the middle of the 20th century, this site was re-excavated by researchers from the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology during 2005 to 2006. Within an area of about 300 m2, the Lingjing site yielded nearly 20 fragments of human fossils, 10 thousands of stone artifacts and more than 10000 pieces of animal fossils. Within the Chinese Paleolithic cultural system, it is of the transitional status between the Early and Later Paleolithic Age. Animal fossils in statistics are primarily from the stratum bearing the hominid fossils - the “Lower Cultural Layer”.
Researchers assessed the differential influences and weights of a variety of taphonomic agencies in the formation of the assemblage, and found hominid hunting and the subsequent disarticulation, slaughtering, and their transport of the bone elements of the prey species are the main factors accounting for the formation of the present assemblage.
After observing the distributional patterns of cut marks on the long bones of animals from the site, researchers found that most cut marks were on the midshaft portions of the bone (185 pieces, 98.45%), whereas only two pieces of distal epiphysis and one piece of proximal epiphysis (1.06% and 0.53%) were cut-marked. And of all the cut-marked long bones, 34% and 41% specimens belong to the upper and middle limbs of herbivores respectively, whereas only 25% belong to the lower limbs. This data suggests that hominids at the Lingjing site first accessed the animal resources prior to the carnivores and cut off the meat on the long bones.
Mortality patterns for two dominant species of the Lingjing site indicate that both animals have the mortality profiles of prime-adults dominated and accompanied by a small proportion of juvenile individuals, implying that hominids there already had relatively mature and systematical living strategies and social organizations in this period.
The distributions of the long bone circumferences and bone lengths could partially reflect the differential modifications of the hominids and carnivores on archaeofauna. The long bone circumferences of most specimens of the Lingjing assemblage is less than 25%, which is identical to that of hominid sites, but much different from that of the carnivore lairs. The lengths of 1300 pieces of long bones measured, are mostly distributed in the area of 3–6 or 6–9 cm, clearly displaying hominids’ influences on the archaeofauna at the Lingjing site.

There is a big difference between the skeletal element profiles of aurochs and horse in the Lingjing assemblage. There are relatively more fragments of horse’s skulls and mandibles, but its long bones are almost absent from the site. Perhaps, just as modern humans did, hominids always preferred to transport all the skeletal parts of the horses back to their base-camps whereas they dropped most of the bones of the aurochs in the killing sites. As compared to the artiodactyls, skeletal elements of the equids have relatively stronger muscle attachment points, and even after a more detailed field processing (such as defleshings, etc.) there will still be a large amount of nutritional components attached to the bone surfaces. If hominids dropped the bones in the field, it will inevitably have resulted in the loss of much nutrients. Furthermore, the marrow cavities within the long bones of equids are significantly smaller and its marrow content is mainly inside the spongy parts of the bones, which cannot be efficiently utilized by ancient humans.
The taphonomic study of the Lingjing site shows that this fauna is not a consequence of a large-scale hunting activity, instead it is just a final synthesis of several episodes of small-scale hunting events. For homonids with limited resources, perhaps the most sensible choice is to move those skeletal elements which still have much nutritional contents adhered, back to the base-camp, where they not only have enough time, but also have technology and capacity to extract nutrition thoroughly from those bones.
“The study of skeletal element profiles is an essential tool to reconstruct hominid behaviors, their social activities or the functions of archaeological sites”, said study lead author Dr. ZHANG Shuangquan of the IVPP, “This study initiatively identifies hominid’s differential treatment of the bones of aurochs and horse in the Paleolithic record of East Asia”.

A team of Australian and New Zealand researchers have discovered fresh evidence that could finally unravel the mystery of what killed Tasmania's giant marsupials over 40,000 years ago.

Analysis carried out at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) on the skeletal remains of extinct megafauna is providing substantial proof that for about 2,000 years they infact shared the island with early humans before suddenly disappearing some time before the last ice age.
The findings challenge for the first real time history's version of events and by now placing our ancestors in Tasmania at the same time as large prehistoric animals, like the Protemnodon anak (a giant wallaby), raises the chances we were involved in their extinction.The climate change debate
Popular belief has centred on three likely scenarios for the mass extinction of the megafauna in the region: environmental causes related to climate change, which was considered the key cause of their extinction. Hyper-disease and human hunting have been a distant second in the debate.
Geological work on sea level change suggests humans could not have crossed Bass Strait until around 43,000 years ago when the island was temporarily connected by a land bridge to Australia. The vanishing of megafauna was thought to have occurred thousands of years preceding human arrival, clearing them from any involvement

That is, of course, until now.Closing the gap between humans and megafauna
Using a technique called radiocarbon dating and a rethink on what samples are used, scientists carrying out the investigative work at Lucas Heights came up with a new set of theories.
Radiocarbon dating uses the amount of Carbon 14 available in living creatures as a measuring stick. Comparing the amount of C14 in a dead organism to available levels in the atmosphere, produces an estimate of when that organism died.
For this analysis, the team decided to carbon date protein samples found in the bones of their subjects, which were prehistoric relatives of the kangaroo, wombat and Tasmanian Devil, using the STAR and ANTARES research accelerators located at ANSTO

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- Ancient American Indian burial mounds in southern
Illinois have been damaged and possibly looted, prompting the state's historical
agency to call for the public's help in identifying the culprits.
Last month, someone dug several holes in a portion of Kincaid Mounds State
Historic Site, a town and religious center of the Mississippian culture of 1,000
years ago in what is now rural Massac and Pope counties, the Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency said Friday.
The culprits were probably searching for "grave goods" that Native Americans
buried with their dead, although it's unclear if any artifacts or human remains
were taken, the agency said. More damage was done to the site recently when an
all-terrain vehicle or truck was driven on one of the mounds, where "No
Trespassing" signs are posted and ATVs are prohibited, the agency said.
"The criminal disturbance of these human burials in Kincaid Mounds is
unconscionable," said Amy Martin, the agency's director. "We hope to apprehend
those who are responsible, which will serve as a deterrent to others who may be
considering the desecration of our state's heritage."
The site, about 170 miles southeast of St. Louis, has been targeted before.
In 2008, three holes several feet wide and deep appeared in the side of one of
the nine mounds, with two of the holes in spots looters had struck the previous
year.

The disturbance of archaeological sites or skeletal remains on state-owned
property can be a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, a $10,000
fine, reparations and forfeiture of any vehicles or equipment used in the
misdeed. Unsettling of burial sites on public land also may be a felony carrying
a three-year prison term and $25,000 fine.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places,
Kincaid Mounds is significant as one of two major political centers of the
Mississippian period in the lower Ohio
River Valley and was one of the first areas in southern Illinois where
intensive, large-scale agriculture was developed.
"These mounds are a unique, irreplaceable part of our heritage, and to
destroy them for the sake of amusement or profit is a despicable act," Martin
said.
Such cases have produced federal charges. In 2010, Leslie Jones pleaded
guilty to excavation, removal or damage of archaeological resources without a
permit after investigators found more than 13,000 artifacts from southern
Illinois' Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge at his home in Creal Springs,
Ill. The collection included pottery, clay figures, stone weapons, tools and
more than 200 pieces of human skeletal remains dating from roughly 6000 B.C. to
400 A.D.
Jones was sentenced to a month in jail, five years of probation, 500 hours of
community service and ordered to pay more than $150,000 in restitution. He had
faced up to two years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Jones admitted he had sold some of the artifacts he unearthed at the refuge
from 2004 through February 2007, having done extensive research that enabled him
to identify pieces of artifacts and their time periods. chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Excavations on Dunnyneil Island in Strangford Lough,
Northern Ireland, have revealed a seventh century trading emporium frequented by
merchants from as far afield as modern day Russia, Germany, Iceland and France.

Back in early medieval times, there was no cash economy, few buyers, and even
fewer sellers, but there are surprising parallels between these ancient trading
outposts and modern shopping centres.Luxury goods,
lots of wine

Medieval wine merchants would
have traded at Dunnyneil

According to archaeologist Dr Philip MacDonald, who led the dig on Dunnyneil,
merchants would have brought wine and other luxury products to Ireland to
exchange at emporia for furs, seal skin, slaves and famed Irish wolfhounds.
"High status members of the Dal Fiatach [the local dynasty whose royal centre
was Downpatrick, County Down] and local traders, would have frequented the
island," he said.
In medieval times, the king controlled trade and wealthy merchants travelled
the seas to buy and sell goods. The trade in imported prestige items would have
been important for the king of Dal Fiatach, to signify his status and power.
"This little speck of an island had a very high significance to the wealth of
the Ulster Kingdom," explains Tom McErlean from the Centre for Maritime
Archaeology.
"Dal Fiatach, or the Kingdom of Ulster, was a great maritime kingdom. It was
fairly cosmopolitan with connections all around the North Sea."
The particular kind of pottery found at Dunnyneil Island is evidence that
luxury goods were imported in some quantity from the continent. The coast around
Strangford Lough has the highest density of this type of pottery ever discovered
in Ireland, suggesting the Kingdom of Ulster was relatively wealthy.

Dunnyneil Island from the
air

Dunnyneil: a brief history

• Believed to be named for Niall of
the Nine Hostages, a fifth century king of Ulster who took hostages from
nine kingdoms around the UK, one of whom was St Patrick.
• Site of an early medieval emporium.
• A long rectangular hut was built on the island around 900 AD, during the
Viking invasions.
• After a period of disuse, it was re-occupied during the 13th century. A
belt buckle from this period was found.

"Dunnyneil played a big role in creating their wealth …
[it] would have been a profitable stopping point for foreign wine merchants. The
Irish kings valued wine very much. There was a big market for wine here. It
would be very much worthwhile," said McErlean.

An eye for what sells

Much like the shopping malls of today, Dunnyneil's ancient traders would have
needed a keen eye for selling the right products to the right people, as Dr
Jonathan Jarrett, a lecturer in medieval history at Oxford University, explains.
"If you sailed [to a settlement] halfway up the east coast and found that a
boat had already been by with Scandinavian hides the previous week, that's a
wasted stop. But at the emporia someone would probably buy the goods, quite
possibly expecting to sell them on."
In short, trading emporia like Dunnyneil Island offered a ready-made market
where you could usually find someone eager to buy your goods.
"They probably did offer at least some speciality goods from each area.
Ireland and England were both famous on the continent for their hunting dogs, so
there were things worth coming a long way for."
And it seems that, like today, the medieval trade in prestige goods wasn't
exempt from dodgy rip-offs.
"One Carolingian swordsmith by the name of Ulfberht acquired such a name for
his blades, which unlike most he stamped onto the metal, that they seem to have
been faked, like knock-off Rolexes," said Dr Jarrett.

“Start Quote

Archaeologists of the future will probably notice we're not
building cathedrals any more, we're building shopping centres and music
festivals ”

End QuoteMark BourgeoisRetail
expert

The Holy Grail of retail

As managing director of a large retail investment
company, it is Mark Bourgeois' job to understand what makes a good place to buy
and sell goods. He sees similarities between medieval emporia and modern
shopping centres, particularly in the supply of the latest prestige goods.

St Denis Fair in France: a
depiction of medieval traders at work

"A manager would identify what items will sell well in their area and work
with the markets to provide good products for consumers that will sell. It is
the mix between the prestige factor shops… which consumers want in their area,
as a matter of civic pride, mixed with a variety of good local retailers. That
mix is the Holy Grail of a successful shopping centre."
There is very little evidence left on Dunnyneil Island of its wheeler-dealer
past. It's a tiny place and the emporium there was never built to last. Only
tenacious archaeological investigation has revealed its role as a sort of
'pop-up' shop that could be taken down as quickly as it was put up, but
sufficient to catch the passing trade for more than 200 years.
Dr Jarrett perhaps sums up the seventh century trading environment that
Dunnyneil inhabited best of all:
"If one were to hear a message from the early medieval business consultancy,
it would perhaps be something like: stock goods that no-one else has, cut deals
with local resellers so you can sell wholesale, get shopping anywhere else
outlawed, and pay the government a cut of your profits for it. Oh, and if
shoppers turn up in boats with dragon prows it probably wise to come up with
some really special offers!"

Sensational discovery by archaeologists of Jena University at a Portuguese excavation site

On a marble plate, measuring 40 by 60 centimetres, the name "Yehiel" can be read, followed by further letters which have not yet been deciphered. The Jena Archaeologists believe that the new discovery might be a tomb slab. Antlers, which were found very close to the tomb slab in the rubble gave a clue to the age determination. "The organic material of the antlers could be dated by radiocarbon analysis with certainty to about 390 AD," excavation leader Dr. Dennis Graen of the Jena University explains. "Therefore we have a so-called 'terminus ante quem' for the inscription, as it must have been created before it got mixed in with the rubble with the antlers."
The earliest archaeological evidence of Jewish inhabitants in the region of modern-day Portugal has so far also been a tomb slab with a Latin inscription and an image of a menorah - a seven-armed chandelier - from 482 AD. The earliest Hebrew inscriptions known until now date from the 6th or 7th Century AD.
For three years the team of the University Jena has been excavating a Roman villa in Portugal, discovered some years ago by Jorge Correia, archaeologist of the Silves council, during an archaeological survey near the village of São Bartolomeu de Messines (Silves). The project was aiming at finding out how and what the inhabitants of the hinterland of the Roman province of Lusitania lived off. While the Portuguese coast region has been explored very well, there is very little knowledge about those regions. The new discovery poses further conundrums. "We were actually hoping for a Latin inscription when we turned round the excavated tomb slab," Henning Wabersich, a member of the excavation reports. After all, no inscriptions have been found so far and nothing was known about the identity of the inhabitants of the enclosure. Only after long research the Jena Archaeologists found out which language they were exactly dealing with, as the inscription was not cut with particular care. "While we were looking for experts who could help with deciphering the inscription between Jena and Jerusalem, the crucial clue came from Spain" Dennis Graen says. "Jordi Casanovas Miró from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona – a well-known expert for Hebrew inscriptions on the Iberian Peninsula – is sure that the Jewish name "Yehiel" can be read, - a name that is already mentioned in the Bible."

Not only is the early date exceptional in this case, but also the place of the discovery: Never before have Jewish discoveries been made in a Roman villa, the Jena Archaelogist explains. In the Roman Empire at that time Jews usually wrote in Latin, as they feared oppressive measures. Hebrew, as on the re-discovered marble plate, only came back into use after the decline of the Roman supremacy, respectively in the following time of migration of peoples from the 6th or 7th century AD. "We were also most surprised that we found traces of Romans - romanised Lusitanians in this case - and Jews living together in a rural area of all things," Dennis Graen says. "We assumed that something like this would have been much more likely in a city."
Information about the Jewish population in the region in general was mostly passed down by scriptures. "During the ecclesiastical council in the Spanish town Elvira about 300 AD rules of conduct between Jews and Christians were issued. This indicates that at this time there must have been a relatively large number of Jews on the Iberian Peninsula already", Dennis Graen explains – but archaeological evidence had been missing so far. "We knew that there was a Jewish community in the Middle Ages not far from our excavation site in the town of Silves. It existed until the expulsion of the Jews in the year 1497."
In the summer the Jena Archaeologists will take up their work again. Until now they have excavated 160 square metres of the villa, but after checking out the ground it already became clear that the greater part of the enclosure is still covered in soil. "We eventually want to find out more about the people who lived here," Graen explains the venture. "And of course we want to solve the questions the Hebrew inscription has posed us."